No. 21: Black Hall, now part of St John’s College
No. 21 is the former Black Hall, which Anthony Wood described as “an ancient receptacle for schollers”. Most of the present building dates from the early seventeenth century. It was long the property of St John's College, who originally let it out to private individuals and then to institutions from 1949. In 2005 the house and its large garden were taken over by St John's College for its own use, and since 2010 they have been part of their Kendrew Quadrangle.
The building lies in St Giles' parish and is Grade II listed (List Entry No. 1369455), with the walls and piers to the south listed separately (1065706).
Above: Black Hall in the 1840s
Below: Black Hall in 1908 (Historic England image CC56/00725)
“La Blakehall” in the parish of St Giles’ was mentioned in a will of 1361, when John of Barford gave certain revenues derived from it to his chantry in All Saints’ Church.
In 1422 Thomas Dagville held “a tenement situated in the suburbs outside the northern gate of Oxford called from antiquity la Blakehall”, and it then passed to his son Wiliam Dagville. William Dagville's daughter Joan Gille (or Gylle) who died in 1501 left Black Hall to Rewley Abbey, and they sold it to St John’s College after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The tenant at this time was a third Mayor of Oxford, Roger Hewett.
For a much fuller account of the owners and occupants of Black Hall, see Ed Pope:
- Six Hundred Years of Blackhall Part One, 1349–1709
- Six Hundred Years of Blackhall Part Two, 1709–1961
The Trollope family and Black Hall (c.1718–1827)
Jane Trollope was born at Black Hall and baptised at St Giles' Church, Oxford on 24 February 1729/30. She was the youngest child of the attorney Thomas Trollope, Esq. and Ann. Jane's mother Ann was buried at St Giles' Church on 1 April 1740, and Jane, who never married, continued to live at Black Hall with her father Thomas until he died at the age of 86 in 1767. Jane then moved to live at 10 St Giles' Street with her widowed sister Mary, who had been married to Thomas Rowney, and Black Hall was let out.
In the 1772 Survey of Oxford Black Hall is listed in four sections:
- Jane Trollope is listed as occupying Black Hall, which was described as a house & garden (with a width on the street of 17 yards 1 foot 4 inches): this is the distance from the wall with 20 St Giles' to the north end of the part of the building with four storeys.
- Richard Ward's farmhouse and yard which continued up as far as the present barn (20 yards 2 feet)
- Jane Trollope's coach house and stable (8 yards) and Richard Ward's stable (5 yards 1 foot 8 inches) which together make up the length of the present barn.
On 25 February 1775 “Jane Trollope of the Parish of St Giles’s in Oxford” took out a Sun Insurance Policy no. 350271. The policy, which was signed by Charles Pole, William Thornton, and J. Mason, offered cover of a total of exactly £1000, and included the adjacent farm house and buildings of Richard Ward.
Her insurance cover was made up as follows:
- On her now Dwelling House only situated as aforesaid stone and slated not Exceeding Four Hundred Pounds: £400.00
- Household Goods therein only not Exceeding Three Hundred Pounds: £300.00
- Farm House only near in the tenure of Richard Ward stone and slated not Exceeding Fifty Pounds: £50.00
- Coach House and Stable in One Building near, stone , timber and slated not Exceeding Fifty Pounds: £50.00
- Stable Kitchen and Granary over in one Building, Stone and slated not Exceeding Fifty Pounds: £50.00
- Barn in the Yard stone and slated not Exceeding Fifty Pounds: £150.00.
Jane Trollope moved back into Black Hall following the death of her sister Mary Rowney in 1797 and let the adjoining farm out to Richard Chillingworth. She died at Black Hall at the age of 98 on 9 February 1827 and was buried in St Giles' churchyard on 16 February. Her estate was inherited by her distant cousin, the Revd Thomas Daniel Trollope, who wasted no time in putting it up for sale.
Occupants of Black Hall since 1827
On 24 March 1827 an advertisement appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal advertising the lease of both the house and the farm. The house was described as “A capital Messuage, Garden, Pleasure Ground, and Out-offices, situate in St Giles's, lately occupied by Mrs. Trollope”.
In 1828 Joseph Parker had retired from his bookshop at 26–27 Broad Street and moved to Black Hall. He restored the building and added a north wing on the site of the old farmhouse. At the time of the 1841 census he was 67 and living alone in the house with three servants. His son Dr Charles Lewes Parker died at the house in St Aldate’s where he both lived and practised surgery on 19 December 1848, and it was soon after that his son’s widow, Mrs Jane Lewis Parker, moved with their children to live with her father-in-law in Black Hall. Joseph Parker died on 9 November 1850, and the 1851 census shows his widowed daughter-in-law Mrs Jane Lewes Parker (35), described as a fundholder, living in Black Hall with her five children (aged from 2 to 10) and six servants (a nurse, under-nurse, cook, housemaid, under-housemaid, and butler).
By 1852 Frederick Joseph Morrell (1811–1882), the son and partner of the solicitor Baker Morrell of 1 St Giles,was living in the house. On 23 December 1834 he had married Elizabeth Maria Parker, the youngest daughter of Joseph Parker. Initially they lived at 15 St Giles, but after her mother Mrs Jane Parker moved out, Elizabeth moved with her husband back to Black Hall, the house from which she had been married. The 1861 census shows them here with six of their children plus their six servants (a footman, cook, housemaid, nurserymaid, under-housemaid, and kitchenmaid)
In 1868 St John’s College built a new road (the present Keble Road) through the Black Hall estate.
The 1871 census show Frederick Joseph Morrell and his wife living at Black Hall with three children and five servants, but by 1881 he had retired to the Grange at Broughton, Oxfordshire with his wife and daughter Helen.
The 1881 census shows Frederick Joseph Morrell's son Frederick Parker Morrell now living in Black Hall with his wife Harriette (daughter of the President of St John’s) and their four children, plus their governess and five servants. In 1891 he was here alone with his five servants. In 1901 he was away from home, and Black Hall was occupied by three of his children, his son-in-law Edward P. Warren, and three grandchildren, plus six servants. Frederick Parker Morrell continued to live here until his death in 1908, and then his widow remained here until her death at the age of 81 on 9 November 1924. The 1911 census shows Harriette Anne Morrell (68) living here with her granddaughter and a nurse plus five servants. She was still here in 1921 with her grandson Christopher Prioleau Warren (24), who was an army lieutenant, and their four servants.
Black Hall remained a private house until the 1940s.
Photograph of Black Hall in 1949
In 1958, together with No. 20 next door, it became Queen Elizabeth House (a residential centre for Commonwealth Studies), which later became a department of the University of Oxford. A new building in light brick, designed by R. E. Enthoven, was added in 1961, and in c.1988 the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute of Agricultural Economics also moved to the site.
In 2005 St John’s College, which had owned Black Hall for c.460 years, took it over for their own use, and renovated it together with No. 20 next door to provide more academic facilities.
|
Occupants of 21 St Giles’ Street listed in censuses and directories |
|
By 1772–1827 |
Thomas & Ann Trollope Their daughter Jane Trollope |
c.1832–1849 |
Joseph Parker |
1849–1851 |
Mrs Jane Lowry Parker |
1852–1924 |
Frederick Joseph Morrell
(1852–1872) |
1926–1930 |
Mrs William Rathbone (Agnes Dorothea Rathbone) |
1931–1948 |
Henry Sessions Souttar, CBE, Surgeon |
1949–1956 |
British Council |
1958–2005 |
Queen Elizabeth House |
2005–present |
Part of St John’s College |
The Barn and Blackhall Farm
The rubble building lies to the north of 21 St Giles (above) and is part of it, but is attached to No. 22 on the left. It dates from the eighteenth century or earlier. Today it is the Kendrew Barn of St John's College and used for exhibitions.
It is separately Grade II listed (List Entry 1047139)
Until 1830 the house called Black Hall at 21 St Giles' Street included on its site the farmhouse and barn of Blackhall Farm, whose lands in St Giles' Field of over a hundred acres stretched as far north as the present Belbroughton Road.
Up until 1761 Blackhall Farm was occupied by William Howell. On 5 September 1761 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised the following sale: “BLACKHALL FARM, in St. Giles’s, Oxford, lately occupied by Mr. William Howell, deceased; consisting of 133 Acres of Arable and Pasture Lane, Tythe-free, except eight Acres of Arable.”
From 1764 to 1770 the farm was held by a Mr Tinson.
In 1770 the farm was taken over by Richard Ward, and the 1772 Survey of Oxford duly list Mr Ward there, with a house & yard (frontage to St Giles' Street 20 yards 2 feet), and a stable (frontage 5 yards 1 foot 8 inches). He died in 1787 and his son Richard Ward junior took over until his death in 1794.
From 1794 the farm was occupied by Richard Chillingworth, who died there on 11 January 1827. It appears that his son John Chillingworth had taken over the farm by 1824, and was duly listed as the tenant in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 24 March 1827 when the farm was put up for sale: it was then described as: “A Cottage and Barn, large Homestead, and about 105 statute Acres in the fields of St. Giles's, and about seven statute Acres in Osney, Oatland's, and Botley Meadows, in St. Thomas's”.
John Chillingworth was still there on 24 March 1827 when an advertisement appeared advertising the sale of both Black Hall itself and the farm. The farm was described as: “A Cottage and Barn, large Homestead, and about 105 statute Acres in the fields of St. Giles's, and about seven statute Acres in Osney, Oatland's, and Botley Meadows, in St. Thomas's”.
A smaller Blackhall Farm to the north (Summertown Farm) from 1832
When the bookseller Joseph Parker acquired the lease of Black Hall from St John's College in 1828, he undertook “to remove the Farm buildings to a suitable spot upon the land belonging to the property in St Giles' Field”.
Following the enclosure of St Giles' parish in 1832, the arable land belonging to the farm was all further north and about half the acreage it had been. A new farmhouse was built on the site of what is now Charlbury Road, and the current farmer in the farmhouse at 21 St Giles' Street, John Chillingworth, duly moved there, and henceforth Black Hall Farm was sometimes described as Summertown Farm.
In October 1856 William Herbert, a cabinet maker at 31 Cornmarket Street and 1 Broad Street, retired from business and moved to this farm. He served as Sheriff of Oxford in 1857/8 and on 19 January 1858 at Summertown married the widow Marianne Withers. He took his own life at the farm on 23 May 1859, and on 23 July 1859 Jackson's Oxford Journal published a notice of sale of all the household furniture and the farming implements, plus four cart horses, 40 fresh wether Tegs, 80 Down ewes, and eight sows and pigs of the late William Herbert at Black Hall Farm.
The Ordnance Survey map of 1876 (below) shows Blackhall Farm as lying immediately to the north of Linton Road:
![Blackhall Farm in 1876]](../../../images/images_stsepulchre/buildings/blackhall_farm_1876.jpg)
On 26 March 1887 Jackson's Oxford Journal advertised a sale of animals and equipment at Blackhall Farm, Summertown in consequence of the farm changing hands. The next farmer there was C. A. Hanley, but he was only there for five years and on 29 October 1892 there was an advertisement for the sale of all the animals and equipment, and another one advertising the farm, which was now only 51 acres.
By 1895 John Gee ran Blackhall Farm Nurseries on the farm site.
In June 1922 the last tenant of the farm was given notice and Belbroughton Road was built on its land.